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Cessna has decided there will be no plane-Jane Skycatchers and is boosting the base price of the aircraft from $114,000 to a more feature-laden $149,000. However, less than half of the hefty increase is due to making things like an MFD, intercom and sun visor standard, features Cessna says most customers were ordering anyway. Cessna's Dianne White told EAA that about $20,000 of the increase is required to make the aircraft make money for the company. "The aviation world is a whole different picture than when the Skycatcher was announced and we must sell the airplane at a price that makes the program sustainable," EAA quotes White as saying.

The Skycatcher was introduced five years ago at a price of $109,000 and Cessna said at the time that the decision to build the aircraft in China was based on keeping the price in $100,000 neighborhood. The new price puts the Skycatcher at the upper end of the market for LSAs. Cessna told those holding positions on future deliveries that it had a few Skycatchers available at the old price on a first-come, first-served basis until the end of the year.